New edition of HPL from Oxford University Press
Posted by:
wilum pugmire (IP Logged)
Date: 29 May, 2013 12:38PM
I had this volume on pre-order at AmazonUSA, but then I read S. T.'s blog, which was a response to a review of the book by Jess Nevins, that appeared in LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS and was reprinted at Salon.com. S. T.'s response to the review is that is "has more than a few remarks that are either bizarre, wrongheaded, or plainly false." Joshi then points out that, for the texts of AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS and "The Shadow out of Time," the book's editor, Roger Luckhurst, has returned to using the mutilated texts as they appeared in ASTOUNDING STORIES, where HPL's lengthy paragraphs were stupidly divided into shorter paragraphs. In his Note on the Text, Luckhurst writes: "I have chosen to reprint the original pulp versions of the tales with regard to paragraphing, in order to retain some of the pulp energy that ASTOUNDING STORIES wanted to inject into Lovecraft's tales." Peter Cannon, in his review of the book at Publishers Weekly, suggests "that the magazine's columnar format dictated the re-paragraphing." What the hell is "pulp energy"? Lovecraft abhorred the treatment of his work by ASTOUNDING. So, reluctantly, I cancelled my pre-order of ye book on Amazon, where it is due to be available next month. But there is an allure to new editions of Lovecraft's tales that is like a drug to me. I went to AmazonUK to see if there were reviews of the book, and saw that the book had already been published in the UK and could be order's there--and so I order'd it. I also wrote a wee review based on what could read from the book on Amazon's "Look Inside" feature.
An Oxford hardcover edition of Lovecraft's tales is one more important component to HPL's rising importance as an important American author. It is a beautiful book, solidly made, with lovely gold end papers and a gold sewn-in book ribbon. Luckhurst's Introduction is very good indeed, and his notes seem excellent (although he seems a bit snide toward S. T. at times; at one point, in a note for "At the Mountains of Madness," we have: "at this point, STJ adds a 'lost' paragraph..."--hmm...) Handsome as the book is, I cannot recommend it, and will probably give my copy to S. T. if he doesn't get the review copy that he has requested from Oxford. After he has examined the book, S. T. will come to my pad to discuss it on a YouTube vlog. The texts seems mostly sound, but there are some errors, including the notorious "silent stutter in darkness" in "The Horror at Red Hook," which should be "silent strutter" (one cannot stutter silently, hello?). The inclusion of "Red Hook" as opening story is also a very poor editorial choice, as the story is little more than a boring poor man's version of THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD. Better he should have used "The Music of Erich Zann" or "The Outsider," or both.
So, it's nice to see an Oxford edition of H. P. Lovecraft, but one wishes they could have found a more qualified editor for such an important book.
Contents:
Introduction &c
The Horror at Red Hook
The Call of Cthulhu
The Colour out of Space
The Dunwich Horror
The Whisperer in Darkness
At the Mountains of Madness
The Dreams in the Witch House
The Shadow over Innsmouth
The Shadow out of Time
Appendix: Introduction from "Supernatural Horror in Literature"
Explanatory Notes